We call on Friends everywhere to
recognize the oppressive burden of militarism and conscription. We acknowledge
our complicity in these evils in ways sometimes silent and subtle, at times
painfully apparent. We are under obligation as Children of God and members of
the Religious Society of Friends to break the yoke of that complicity.

As Friends we have for many
years been granted privileged status within the draft system. This has often
blinded us to the evil of the draft itself, and the treatment of those not so
privileged. We are grateful for all those who by resolutely resisting the draft
have quickened our conscience. We are called into the community of all who
suffer for their refusal to perform unconscionable acts.

We reaffirm the "Advices on
Conscription and War" adopted at Richmond in 1948. We realize in 1968 that
our testimony against conscription is strengthened by refusing to comply with
the Selective Service law. We also recognize that the problem of paying war
taxes has intensified; this compels us to find realistic ways to refuse to pay
these taxes.

We recognize the evil nature of
all forms of conscription, and its inconsistency with the teachings and example
of Christ. Military conscription in the United States today undergirds the
aggressive foreign policies and oppressive domestic policies which rely on easy
availability of military manpower. Conscription threatens the right and
responsibility of every person to make decisions in matters of conscience.
Friends opposing war should refuse any kind of military service; Friends
opposing conscription should refuse to cooperate with the Selective Service
System.

We call for the abolition of the
Selection Service System and commit ourselves to work with renewed dedication
to abolish it. We shall oppose attempts to perpetuate or extend conscription,
however constructive the alleged purpose, by such a system as National Service.
We do not support efforts at draft reform; the issue is not equal treatment
under compulsion, but freedom from compulsion.

We recognize how difficult it is
to work through these complex issues, and to bear the burden of decision and
action. We hold in love and respect each member of our Society as he follows
where conscience leads. We know there are spiritual resources available to
those who would be faithful.

Friends Are Urged to:

1. Commit our energies and
resources in substantial measure to launch a concerted campaign to end the
draft. Friends can serve as a catalyst in this effort, in cooperation with
groups representing a cross-section of American life.

2. Prepare for Monthly Meetings three sets of queries
designed to:

a.clarify the responsibility of the Meeting to all young men of
draft age.

b.help young Friends think through their alternatives.

c.assist
Friends not directly subject to the draft to decide what actions they should
take.

3. Appoint in each Monthly
Meeting a Clearness Committee to assist all its young men in their search for
clarity as they face the draft.

4. Set up procedures for called
Meetings for Worship to share the affirmation of young men who engage in such
acts of resistance as refusing to register, or disaffiliating from Selective
Service or the Armed Forces.

5. Establish Meetings for Sufferings to provide for such
needs of resisters as:

a.jobs for those awaiting sentence

b.help for families

c.bail and legal aid

d.meeting places for groups of resisters

e.hospitality and shelter

f.formation
of a Resisters Service and Action Corps for those who choose to witness in this
way.

6. Consider engaging in
corporate acts of support for resisters in Friends schools, colleges and
organizations, even when such acts involve conflict with man-made laws.

7. Provide draft information and
counseling centers in the local community, supported by their Meetings,
schools, colleges or organizations.

8. Respond to the needs of young men whose conscientious
resistance to conscription and military service leads them to courses of action
other than open disaffiliation. Included are some men in such situations as
these:

a.those who may become refugees in other lands for conscience
sake

b.AWOL military personnel

c.men
still on active military duty.

Affirmation of Action

We commit ourselves to validate
our witness by visible changes in our lives, though they may involve personal
jeopardy. We cannot rest until we achieve a truly corporate witness in the
effort to oppose and end conscription. Let us hold each other in the Light
which both reveals our weaknesses and strengthens us to overcome them.

[Friends Coordinating Committee
on Peace organized a Friends National Conference on the Draft and Conscription,
held in Richmond, Indiana, Oct. 11-13, 1968.This declaration was used by many Friends who took the
noncooperator position at their trials. It was reprinted in Quakers and the
Draft, Charles Walker, editor: 1969.]

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Quote that speaks to me

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle; the Root and Record of their friendship. If absence be not death, neither is theirs. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this Divine Glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This
is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet
their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present,
because immortal. - William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude, 1702.

Note: This passage was quoted by J.K.Rowling as the epigraph of her novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

It is as a "religion of life" that Quakerism will be presented in the future and is being presented now.

Its distinguishing note will be its resolve to bring all this human life of ours under the transforming power of spiritual life.It
will stand out against all divisions and compartments that separate the
sacred from the secular, the sanctuary from the outward world of
nature, the sacrament from the days' common work, the clergy from the
laity.

It will tell of a Christian
experience that makes all life sacred and all days holy, all nature a
sanctuary, all work a sacrament, and gives to every man and woman in the
body fit place and service.Its concern will be to
multiply men and women who will have a message of power because they are
themselves the children of light.It will claim the whole
of man's life, and the whole of life, individual, social, national
international, for the dominion of the will of God.

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